Remove Image Background and Turn It Into Silhouette (for Free!)

In this tutorial I will go through the steps needed to remove the background from an image, and optionally turn it into a silhouette, using only free software and very little skills.

Please vote for me if you find this handy :) If I win a Form1Labs printer, I am hoping I will be able to open the first hackerspace \ makerspace in our area :)

Step 1: Choose Your Image & Download the Software You Need

- Choose your image, if you are taking the image of a family member make sure that the background is as white as possible (or any other color that can really standout next to their skin) - this will make selection a lot easier

- Download your software, for this tutorial I am using Gimp, it is a 100% free software that has very good image editing capabilities.

Step 6: Touch Ups and Saving

Step 7: You Are Done!

You can now use the silhouette for any crafts projects, I used a Silhouette cutting machine to cut various family members silhouettes and frame them, there are so many things you can do with these silhouettes :

I tried my best to get it at the Foreground selection step, you can add more path points as needed till it looks as smooth as you want it, of course you can always paint over the final shape with a black brush to make it exactly how you want it, hope that helps!

hmm, i got the scissor clicking done, and these big white dots appear and then I press enter and nothing happens.. (it already is a line with those big white dots.) and then even if i continue onto invert selection, the whole image is gone except for the white line with dots i created. . then i do the bucket fill and the whole screen gets filled. so somehow im missing a few clicks in places i think.